Natural born killer pet from coyotes to foxes

When visiting in Nova Scotia recently, I heard a sad tale. My aunt's collie-cross dog, Jeanie, was accustomed to going for walks on her own in the local woodlands. The area was genuine Canadian wilderness, with no local farm livestock to worry about, so this was never seen as a big problem. Jeanie gained much pleasure from chasing chipmunks, sniffing out scents of game birds like grouse, and enjoying themselves out of the open air.

One winter's day, when the snow was thick on the ground, Jeanie did not come home at dusk, for her dinner. She always returned to supper, so my aunt was immediately worried. What could have happened?

It was simple to find out, had fresh snow had fallen early in the day, and it had stopped snowing. Jeanie's tracks could easily be followed by a torchlight. My aunt is traced from the back porch, along the woodland for a few hundred yards, into an open clearing. And this is where she found evidence of the tragedy: the snow had been trodden down over an area with a circumference of ten meters. And there was red blood mixed with the tramped down snow. Then on the far side of the area, there were the distinctive footprints of three or four large coyotes, tracking away from in the opposite direction. It was obvious that Jeanie had encountered a pack of hungry coyotes, and despite putting on a valiant battle she had been slain. My aunt never found her body.

Here in Ireland, we are lucky enough to have serious predators: in Nova Scotia, there are bears and even rumors of wolves. There is also an ongoing threat from the skies, with eagles occasionally snatching small dogs from back yards.

In this country, the biggest carnivorous mammals are foxes and badgers, and it's rare for them to attack pets. Of course, dogs can not be allowed to run wild in the countryside, because of the damage they would cause to sheep and other livestock. Their lives would be at risk if they were so, but they would not be able to get away from the animals under their care.

Foxes are not entirely innocent: they are a blight to poultry owners, regularly snatching hens and ducks from back yards. Part of the responsibility of being well kept is to ensure that you are safe and secure.

These are some of the reasons why they are being treated too much by the foxes too, but they have been seen taking care of animals, like kittens and elderly cats.

We are also unfortunate enough to have an introduced predator in Ireland. They are a more difficult carnivore to keep out than foxes, slinking through tiny holes into hen runs, causing devastation then sneaking away, unseen.

In London, they have been in the process of becoming suburbs, with their mutilated bodies turning up later. The badailant was dubbed "The Croydon Cat Killer", and cat owners were warned to keep their pets safe. More than 400 cats were killed, and suspicious cat deaths were reported across England, as far north as Manchester.

Eventually, the police became involved. The bodies of the victims were submitted for forensic badysis by experienced pathologists. The report of their findings was released during the summer, and their findings were clear: There was no crazed Croydon Cat Killer. There was no evidence of traces of clothing, or DNA was recovered. Humans had not played a deliberate part in the deaths of these much loved pets.

The cause was a combination of the mundane and the worrying. First, many of the deaths were caused by road traffic accidents. Cats – especially young cats- do not have much road sense, and they can not get to where they go. A cause of devastating injuries to a cat, and while this cause is obvious when a cat is found beside the road, if it is relocated to somewhere else, it is harder to make the connection. These are some of the most visible places in the world, and they are undetermined for a visible place, and they are also sometimes moved by predators like foxes. The fox might then eat some of the cat before abandoning its body, causing the types of mutilations which made people suspect a sadistic human killer.

As well, the pathologists who have been killed have already been preying on living pet cats. The fox population in urban areas like London has boomed, and with the widespread use of tamper-proof wheelie bins, it has become more difficult for you to find food to scavenge. For this reason, they get more and more hungry, and this leads to their becoming bolder. When a fox has learned that it can successfully snatch a cat and enjoy a feline meal, the behavior tends to be repeated.

If you have a frail cat –

Wicklow People